Bengaluru, November 17: On his second term in charge at Mumbai City FC, manager Alexandre Guimaraes is really positive about his team’s chances ahead of new season.

The fourth season of the Indian Super League starts on Friday (November 17) with a clash between last season’s finalists ATK and Kerala Blasters and Mumbai boss Guimaraes looks optimistic about his side’s chances this season.

He guided Mumbai City FC to the Indian Super League (ISL) playoffs for the first time in 2016, and now back with the team for a lengthier season, head coach Guimaraes sounds positive.

#RanbirKapoor, @alexguimaborges & @Amrinder_1 pose for the 📸 as we wrap up the #MCFCPressConference.#MadeInMumbai #TheIslanders #LetsFootball #HeroISL. pic.twitter.com/37AMDX7C7g

— Mumbai City FC (@MumbaiCityFC) November 16, 2017

While Mumbai have built a promising squad ahead of the ISL 2017 season, two of their fearsome weapons from last season, Diego Forlan and Sunil Chhetri will not be around this season. However, the manager is not very worried about it.

“I always like to talk about players we have. Yes, Forlan and Chhetri contributed a lot to take us to the playoffs but now is a new chapter and we have to deal with the players we have. There’s Balwant (Singh), Thiago Nascimento Dos Santos, Sanju (Pradhan), (Abhinas) Ruidas.”

“They have shown that they want to make the fans proud. Even Arindam (Bhattacharya) is pushing Amrinder (Singh) for the goalkeeper’s spot,” said Guimaraes at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday (November 16).

The Costa Rican was also extremely pleased with the pre-season tour of Spain where his men lost just one game.

“It's not just about the results, which is positive, but building a fully new team. The players understood very fast about the idea we wanted to introduce to them and they played with their heart, even in pre-season," he said.

"Players suffer whenever we lose and the interesting thing is that even in pre-season, we felt gutted after losing a game. I am happy because of this attitude,” he added.